Break-Fast

JUST in case you weren't aware just about every day in the United States has a food holiday. For example, March 6th is National Frozen Food Day as well as National White Chocolate Cheesecake day...I'll leave it up to you which you'd prefer to celebrate.


Allegedly Monday was National Breakfast Day according to a normally reliable source. Further investigation shows it was actually National Poundcake Day, but that is neither here nor there. What it did inspire me to do is get creative with my breakfast food (for dinner) for a solid week...

Monday was (frozen) waffles with blueberries, although this recipe for blueberry syrup would have been a nice addition. Tuesday was a "hangover melt" courtesy of Glamour, recipe here. Tonight was crispy roasted potatoes. Original recipe calls for a regular potato with parmesan and seasoning salt, but I made a sweet potato with cinnamon and a little bit of brown sugar. Either way it would be delicious, recipe here.


Tomorrow I'm thinking Chai Spice or Scotcharoo Oatmeal, although I can't ignore the fact that March 7th is National Cereal Day...but let's be honest I would celebrate that morning, noon, for 365 if I could.


What's your favorite breakfast treat? (Waffle Day is March 26th, mark it on your calendars! Ridiculous list of food holidays here)

Adventures of a Hypochondriact Part I

I titled this post Adventures of a Hypochondriact Part I because this is not the last time I will convince myself that I have a disease. Confession time: when I was younger I broke my arm and nobody believed me. I had a tendency to exaggerate, and even the school nurse told me to go back to class. Once I learned to quit crying wolf, I discovered I actually had a myriad of health problems. Go figure. Remember the time I choked and wound up in the emergency room? Me too. Further proof that I will do anything to eat ice cream for a solid weekend.

Any who, since the discovery of my deeper health issues I've been searching for an answer, and after some conversation with co-workers and friends I convinced myself I had Celiac Disease. My doctor said the only way to know for sure is to cut it out and see how I do. So this is the diary of the week I didn't eat gluten:

Day 1: Going through my cabinets and starting to panic. Absolutely everything has freaking gluten in it! I start to wonder what my life will be like without cake, bread, or whole wheat pancakes. I start chanting "pleasedon'tletthisworkpleasedon'tletthiswork!"


Day 2: I feel fantastic! No stomach aches to speak of, I have a good deal of energy that I attribute to making better choices rather than just making grilled cheese sandwiches, and since most chocolate is gluten free I don't feel all that deprived. Kind of awesome.

Quinoa Chocolate Cake Recipe

Day 3: Tired, which I attribute to Thanksgiving partying. Curiously, while grocery shopping I walk past the bakery and feel that I would indeed rip someone's throat out for a brownie.


Day 4: I feel like total and utter crap. Trying to supplement carbs with brown rice but so far, no dice. I fell asleep on the train and I felt completely drained despite not doing a dang thing all day. Boo.

Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Day 5: I think about quitting but chalk yesterday up to carb withdrawal. I down a second cup of coffee and seize the day. Have more energy today but it's not solving all of my health problems.


Day 6: Had to wake up early for a training session at work and realized the lag is subsiding but the old problems are still occurring. Co-worker suggests it could be dairy. Oy.

Brown Rice Chicken and Cilantro Salad

Day 7: It appears some of my issues have been made better by eliminating gluten while others remain intact. I think it would be a good idea to limit the amount of gluten I eat rather than cutting it out entirely, and the same goes for dairy. There is apparently a delicate balance for me, and I just haven't hit it yet.


As of another week later, I'm continuing to limit (but not eliminate) my gluten intake which seems to be helping. The next step is finding a work-out routine I enjoy enough to stick to. I hear you number 4. Other than meals being difficult to plan this has been an extremely helpful experiment that I hope to carry on. Maybe I'm not always a hypochondriact!

Whatcha' Making?

Thanksgiving is mere hours away and although I can't run back to Columbus (I work Black Friday, ugh) I'm headed to Roommate's new place for an orphan Thanksgiving. I thought about bringing some sort of sweet potato dish but I'm having second thoughts. I only have tonight and tomorrow morning to make whatever it is I'm making, and I'm being a little indecisive. Tell me what you think sounds good...

/ Sweet Potato Casserole Recipe Here / Green Beans, Recipe Here / 

 /Apple and Onion Stuffing, Photo Via Recipe Here / Ginger Apple Bourbon, Recipe Here /

It's okay if you want to pick "all of the above". What are you cooking up this Thanksgiving?

Foooood

Remember that time a long, long time ago when I said I was going to be an adult and actually start cooking my meals? A whole two weeks in and I've actually stuck with it! Of course this means that now that I've announced it there will be a rapid decline in my kitchen productivity, but so far it's been pretty enjoyable. It got a little hairy for a bit trying to pack lunch and dinner to go straight from the museum to the theatre, but overall I'm pretty darn proud of myself, considering my total lack of Julia-Child-like tendencies.

Here are the recipes that I've made so far...I want to preface this list by saying that if I recipe calls for some six dollar spice that I can't steal from my roommate, I won't use it. I also make things by the recipe, like a serving for four people and then I split it up throughout the week. Less prep time overall if you can do it all on one day.

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad via The Girl Who Ate Everything I actually made a batch of this and it lasted for three days! Huzzah!

Bistro Style Crispy Chicken via The Fit Cook

Blueberry Breakfast Grilled Cheese via Fit From Conception, otherwise known as the easypeasy recipe that's blowing up Pinterest right now. I left out the icing sugar and it still tasted of awesomeness.

Crispy Coconut Chicken via The Fit Cook I precooked a batch of these and it doesn't do so well on the re-heat. There's still some in my fridge if anyone wants to bring the mango salsa!

I've also been throwing together a lot of fruit salads and experimenting with pita pockets (I'm wild and crazy like that.) Hard boiling eggs in advance for meals is also a big help since I can grab it and go...but I haven't phased out eating cereal for meals entirely. I just discovered quick oats with peanut butter though, and that seems to be a slightly better substitute.

If you're stuck, I highly recommend The Fit Cook. Tons of simple easy to make ideas and still healthy. I'm bent on learning how to make her Banana Waffles and Game Day Chili 

Cake Cake Cake

Yesterday I was an unstoppable machine! I think it might have had something to do with the extra hours of sunlight, thank you solstice! I cleaned the kitchen and partook in a brief and humid run with Running Buddy. We had dinner at Potbelly (which was the first place Viking and I ever ate in Chicago when he was doing grad-school visits two years ago) and it was delicious. I came home and cleaned the living room, chatted with E and David for an hour or so, and made a pan of chocolate frosted brownies for work today that I'm sure will be eaten all too quickly. You would be surprised how fast treats go in the health food restaurant...it's like we've never seen chocolate before.

All that's left to do before Mom gets here tomorrow is tidy up and decide what kind of cake Betty Crocker and I want to make for the cast. Many a person has pointed out that the birthday girl/boy isn't supposed to make their own cake, but I really enjoy it! So much so that last year I made two! A Chocolate Peanut Butter Silk Cake for the family and a Lemon Cake with Raspberry Mousse for my actual birthday. Nom nom nom!

This year I've narrowed it down to some easier and less time consuming choices that will hopefully pair well with either Jack Soaked Cherries or Tequila Soaked Watermelon. I am the classiest of broads, I realize. So, here are my choices:

Strawberry Yogurt Cake

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Chocolate Strawberry Cake

Over the Moon Cupcakes

Which cake would you like to see on your Birthday?

Pasta Dinner

After the tragic loss of my camera's USB cable these pictures have been sitting on my camera for a couple of weeks. I have been digging through my apartment looking for it and finally pronounced it MIA. I moseyed on over to Tar-jay and picked up an SD card reader so I could upload these gems...I thought I had taken WAY more pictures than this, but I suppose not.

This was Bill's second to last day in Chicago before he took off for Russia, and damn, can that man cook! He made Chicken Parmesan and I made Watermelon Caprice, watermelon and mozzarella...I'm a regular Rachel Ray I realize.  

Sunday

Yesterday Mom and Reid had to pack up and go. I made a serious attempt and writing another Spring Fever Picks post, but I kept getting side tracked by room organization and watching movies. I watched three yesterday! Here are the last few pictures from Friday...

Reid didn't want to be in another picture so our waiter "George Clooney" sat next to him.

The Best Cinnamon Roles in Chicago from Ann Sather's. They are absolutely drowning in cream cheese frosting if ya can't tell. 

You know when you realize that a good time is coming to an end and you just want to stretch it out just a little bit further? Yesterday morning I drank my coffee as slowly as possible, didn't do the fast paced city walk from my apartment to Heartland to get french toast, and took my time looking over the apartment for anything they might leave behind. It didn't fully hit me until Reid texted to say they were home and having dinner. Needless to say a weepy phone call to the Viking was in order.

Today it's back to the grind. Preview for the festival I'm ASM-ing tonight followed by a short run of performances until Wednesday, and then stage managing a main stage for a theatre company near my apartment.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday!

-K.K.

Pleasure and Culture

Yesterday we got my car tire plugged (yay!) went to Target (double yay!) and enjoyed delicious delicious green bean fries, begian ales, and burgers at Hamburger Mary's in Andersonville where they deliver your check in a platform pump! We passed the time by watching people argue with the meter maid and enjoying the sunshine.

After lunch it started to rain which cooled the city off drastically, so it was time for an outfit change. We walked up and down the Mag. Mile and dipped in to Water Tower Mall for some shopping and looked for a place to eat. We finally agreed that ice cream was in order and went to Zanzibar in Edgewater for cafe salads and junior sundaes.

We capped off the night by watching Bridesmaids, trueling laptops all the way. Today is the last full day and it's already raining! We'll see what mischief we can get in to before they leave.

Have a Better Life

On Sunday I was possessed by some "have a better life demon" that decided that I should cut down on sugar. I went to the grocery store, bought more fruits and veggies, chose a healthier breakfast cereal, but it's been harder than it seemed. When I sit down for my nightly blog catch-up my brain starts to twitch.

"Don't you have something for me?" Brain asks. "Why of course!" I say as I grab a bag of sweet tarts. But I've also found if I eat around the craving then ten minutes later I'm still hungry for what I wanted to begin with and yet I've eaten a hand full of trail mix and an apple with some string cheese. I believe some like to call this a lack of will power, and I'm working on it! I go through phases where I really want candy, and then phases where all I want are salads. I just need to wait for the sugar phase to run its course and the leafy green phase to come back!

The Have a Better Life Demon also convinced me to get back on track with The Artist's Way and after completing several activities this one stuck out to me the most: choose one food you liked from your childhood and buy if for yourself. Right at the top of that list?

Muddy Buddies! (or puppy chow). Now what Better Life Demon? Do I indulge my inner Artist or do I deprive Beach-Bound-Kiley that wants to look cute in a swimsuit three months from now?

Three months is a long time that I can be doing sit ups. I'll even scout around for a yoga video tomorrow morning, okay Better Life Demon? I hope you're happy with yourself. I know I am!

Also looking fabulous today: Lemon Buddies! Better Life Demon probably won't let me try this right away, but it seems like something fun to bring to a summer party.

Recipes and pictures here and here

Oscar Sunday

Last night I had every intention of finding a wild and crazy (probably gay) bar to watch the Oscars with Roommate. But I got home, shuffled around the apartment a bit, and realized that I didn't really want a wild and crazy night...but I didn't want to sit in my pj's a eat cereal for dinner (again) either. Roommate had been wanting to go to this restaurant two blocks from our apartment, it's called Heartland Cafe in Roger's Park.

It's a mash up of a cafe, bar, general store, art gallery, and performance space. They even have live radio broadcasts on Saturday mornings during breakfast and a beach stand during the summer.

Roommate and I got the black bean burger and buffalo burger respectively, both with sweet potato fries. After snooping their breakfast menu I think that I have to go back for brunch some time. I've been searching for a breakfast-all-day restaurant to replace my beloved Hangover Easy since I moved here, so hopefully this is a good lead.

Once we got home we opened a bottle of champagne that had been in the fridge since New Year's and sipped casually while we ate cajun trail mix and took mini shots every time someone got on stage and thanked "Marty". Totally beat Rose Byrne and Melissa McCarthy to the punch, although after they did it we had to do one too.

All in all, an excellent Oscar Sunday.

Photos via & via & via

Care Package

I thought I'd show everyone the awesome care package my Mama sent me for Valentine's Day! '

She started doing this for me when I went to college a whole twenty minutes down the highway. There's nothing like receiving a package and showing everyone what your lovely mom sent you. I immediately ripped the box open and sorted through the contents naming off each thing with an un-controllable glee to the Viking over the phone.

Along with the aforementioned Bridesmaids dvd and Excuse-Moi Muppets nail polish the package also came chocked full of my favorite stuff like Sweet Tarts, which taste better in heart form or even chick, duck, and bunny form around Easter. Peanut butter M&Ms, Cheryl's Cookies (not all are in the picture because I ate one already), and gift cards to Dunkin Donuts which is my favorite place to score iced coffee, and Old Navy. I'm keeping my eye out for something springy, maybe one of these choices?

She even threw in my running shoes so I don't have to wear my busted toning shoes anymore. I'll welcome them back in to my life tonight with Running Buddy. I haven't been to a meeting in a couple weeks, eeps!

So thank you Mom! You're the best at making me feel like I'm right at home, even when I'm not!

Domesticated

Roommate and I did this back in December, but I still thought it was worth sharing. It's perfect for a snowy cold day and it's super easy to make: Nutella Chocolate Mug Cakes!

The whipped cream is a must since ours turned out a little dry, but use some chocolate sauce and it's just like lava cake! Recipe here.

Hope everyone is enjoying their lazy or productive Sunday, however you want to spend it!